Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday called on the United States to expand sanctions on Russian oil companies from just two companies to the entire industry and called for a counterattack against Russia with long-range missiles.
President Zelenskiy was in London to meet with 20 European leaders who have pledged military aid to protect their countries from future Russian aggression if a cease-fire halts more than three years of war.
The meeting, hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was aimed at increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and gave impetus to recent measures, including new European Union and US sanctions on Russia’s vital oil and gas export revenues.
The talks also discussed how to protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s near-daily drone and missile attacks as winter approaches, how to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and how to supply Kiev with long-range missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.
President Zelensky has asked the US to deploy Tomahawk missiles, an idea that US President Donald Trump has so far rejected, although he is enthusiastic about it.
The Ukrainian leader said President Trump’s decision this week to impose oil sanctions was a “huge step” and said “we have to put pressure on all Russian oil companies, not just Rosneft and Lukoil.”
“Furthermore, we are carrying out our own pressure operations with drones and missiles, specifically targeting Russia’s oil sector,” he told a press conference at the Foreign Office in London.
Putin has so far resisted efforts to press for peace with Zelenskiy, insisting that Russia’s motives for a full-scale invasion of its small neighbor are justified.
Russia is also skilled at finding loopholes to avoid the effects of Western sanctions.
And the Russian leader’s refusal to enter into meaningful peace talks with Kiev has infuriated Western leaders.
“He has again denied us the opportunity to talk and instead made ridiculous demands for land in Ukraine, which is impossible and we have not occupied it by force,” Starmer told a news conference alongside Zelensky and several other European leaders.
“Of course, that’s a complete beginner.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Putin’s goals remain the same, but he is “running out of money, troops and ideas.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schauff also attended Friday’s Coalition of the Will meeting in person. About 20 other leaders participated via video link.
Building “peace of mind”
Ukraine’s Western allies need to resolve some big questions about their future roles as they approach the fourth anniversary of the biggest conflict since World War II.
Uncertainties include how it can help finance war-torn Ukraine, how it can provide postwar security, and what U.S. commitments to its future security arrangements will be.
Details of a potential future “reassurance force” are scant, and the London conference aimed to develop the idea further, even though a peace agreement seems only a remote possibility at this point.
Officials said the force would likely consist of air and naval support rather than Western forces in Ukraine.
British Defense Secretary John Healy said the force would be “a force that helps ensure air and sea security, and a force that helps train the Ukrainian military to defend the country.”
The war shows no signs of slowing down, with thousands of soldiers on both sides killed in a war of attrition on the front and heavy drone and missile fire taking its toll in the rear.
Russia announces capture of Ukrainian village
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Friday that Russian troops had captured 10 villages in Ukraine in the past week.
This small-scale conquest is part of Russia’s slow but steady efforts to encircle the remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region from both the north and south and establish a foothold from which to advance further west into the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Ministry of Defense also announced that its military shot down 111 Ukrainian drones in several areas overnight, with debris damaging homes and infrastructure.
A drone crashed into an apartment building in Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow, injuring five people, including a child, Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that the Air Defense Force shot down three drones heading into the city, forcing the suspension of flights at two of Moscow’s airports.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday that Russian artillery shelling hit a residential area in the southeastern city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 22 others, including a 16-year-old.
Russian military aircraft also dropped at least five powerful glide bombs on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, injuring six people and damaging homes, said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Also on Friday, Russia fired a glide bomb into southern Ukraine’s Odesa region for the first time, posing a “new serious threat” in the region, according to Odesa Regional Military Directorate Chief Oleh Kiper.
Glide bombs are significantly cheaper than missiles and can carry heavier payloads.
Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznitsia announced train delays and rerouting in three regions due to “massive shelling” that damaged infrastructure that Russian forces have targeted in recent months.